Upcycling Interiors: 5 Top Tips

If you enjoyed our upcycling chat with TV furniture expert, designer and maker Nessa Doran O’Reilly this month, give it a go yourself! Tired old drawers, broken chairs and sad shelves are all ripe for a revamp, but before you chuck the kitchen sink at it, check out Nessa’s top tips for success…

Nessa’s Top Five Upcycling Tips:

1. Have fun and don’t be too precious. Upcycling is all about experimentation and trial and error. Some of my best pieces have come about from mistakes.

3. Car boot sales and charity shops are amazing treasure troves. Ask sellers if they have any broken furniture that they are looking to get rid of. I have had some wonderful drawers and mirrors from broken dressing tables.

One of Nessa’s ‘Lovely Legs’ lamps, made from the discarded Windsor chair legs

4. Tool kit. Having the right tools for the job makes it much, much easier. It doesn’t have to be huge or expensive but you’ll need a basic drill, hand saw (Japanese saws are great as they are small cut on the pull which makes them easier to control and give a very fine cut), staple gun, a set of screw drivers and a good selection of sandpaper.

5. Don’t be scared of colour; upcycling is a great opportunity to play with bold colours and fabrics. Just make sure if you are painting, to prepare your surfaces – there’s nothing worse than seeing all your hard work flaking off.

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